Sermons And Gubbins

This story was given in place of a sermon at our 10:15 service on Sunday 22nd September. The gospel that day was Luke 16:1-13 , a particularly tricky parable of Christ's in which he commends a cheating manager for looking out for his own future. Lots of very learned people have written lots of clever stuff about the passage, and the one thing that people agree on is that it is just very hard to understand! In the past few weeks, I've read lots about it, and tied my thoughts up in knots! One piece I read compared the parable to a particular trope in Roman comedy, in which a cunning servant tricks his master, and everything works out fine in the end (think Frankie Howerd in ' Up Pompeii ').  There does seem to be a similarity, and that got me wondering whether the parable might actually have been based on a play that Christ saw. I then (in turn) reimagined that as a real-life situation that Christ happened to come across, and... well, the result is below. I hope that f...

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on August 25th. It was my first Sunday back after my paternity leave. The sermon borrows heavily from one I gave in Oldham three years earlier , but I think that's ok! The gospel this morning was Luke 13:10-17 . Hope you enjoy... It’s lovely to be back up here in the pulpit this morning. It’s been quite a long time since I last preached, and I’m really thankful that Huw, Alex, Cath, Fi and Vaughan have picked up the extra services and sermons whilst I’ve been off on paternity leave. Thank you all! The ministry team here are fortunate to have the freedom of being in a large team that allows one of us time off when needed. Even with that, however, the time has still gone pretty quickly, though! My last sermon before Miriam was born was right at the beginning of June, and I wasn’t on the rota to do anything then until after she was born. She was 6-weeks-old on Friday, and this is my first time back in the pulpit sinc...

This sermon was preached at our Sunday morning service on November 19th. The Gospel was Matthew 25:14-30 ; commonly known as The Parable of the Talents. In the news recently had been fresh allegations of tax avoidance by the rich, royal and famous , including particular stories of the Queen's Duchy of Lancaster estate having invested in BrightHouse ; a rent-to-own company, accused of irresponsible lending . In researching this sermon, I am indebted to  this sermon from 2007 I found online when looking up an interpretation that fit a more- Liberation Theology perspectice. I hope you enjoy...  # Apprentice Theme Music # Dum, da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum DUUUM NARRATOR:            Previously on the Apprentice…  Our three remaining candidates were all given large sums of Lord Shudder’s own personal wealth whilst he went away on a business trip. The dividing of the money was determined by how many tasks th...